Via Citi Bike

By Paul Bisceglio

Where are all the bikes?

New Yorkers expected to see 7,000 more of them at this point in the summer, but now Citi Bike, the city’s new bike share program, has been delayed for unspecified reasons.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg confirmed in a radio interview on Friday that the city was unsure of when the new fleet of bicycles would be available to the eager public for rent.

“Still working, trying to get it done,” he said. “With any big system there’s always things that you’ve got to make sure work before you turn it on. We’re not going to turn it on until it’s ready.”

Department of Transportation spokesman Seth Solomonow echoed Bloomberg in a statement. “We’re working on the launch plan and will update the public as soon as we finalize all the details,” he said.

The Citi Bike initiative aims to have 10,000 bikes on city streets with 600 moveable docking stations by the end of next summer. Users will pay a daily, monthly or annual fee to have 24-hour access to the bikes, which they can ride of up to 45 minutes per session without additional charge.

Citi Bike’s website, which previously said “Citi Bike is launching in July!,” now promises that the program is “coming soon to a street near you.” The program’s Twitter feed said earlier in the month, “look for the launch in August,” but an official date remains to be set.

While shopping at a chain supermarket on Greenwich Street, a man from Washington State put his black Gucci money clip down as he was shopping. When he realized he no longer had the money clip at the checkout, he went to look for it, but it unfortunately didn’t turn up. Among the lost items were credit cards and Harley Davidson and Costco gift cards totaling $500.

Out to Lunch

When a 38-year-old woman was eating lunch at a taquería on Canal Street, she didn’t expect to get a phone call a few days later from her credit card company asking for payment on about $1,600 in charges from that day. The woman believes a nimble-fingered thief reached into the purse draped behind her chair as she ate, grabbed her credit cards and $250 in cash and ran. The woman had no clue she had been robbed until she got the phone call.

Dance the Night Away

Drinking and dancing sounded like lots of fun to a 21-year-old woman until, as she danced the night away at a bar on Pearl Street, a man stole her Louis Vuitton purse and wallet worth $1,500. Also stolen were her Apple iPhone 4S, credit cards and $200 worth of MAC makeup. The thief was recognized as a regular of the establishment and is believe to work in a kitchen in Hanover Square.

Off to Work

When a 29-year-old woman went to clock in at the restaurant she works at on Church Street, she unfortunately forgot her purse on one of the bar stools. After catching up with her co-workers, she realized that the bag had vanished without a trace. Inside were her apartment keys, debit card and $200 cash.

Teatime

On March 22, a 46-year-old man sat down in his favorite coffee shop on the corner of Dey and Church streets to drink some tea and do some work on his computer. When he reached down to collect his bag next to his leg, he realized that someone had stolen it, along with his cell phone, credit cards, a $100 digital camera, headphones and an Apple iPod, which were all inside.

Card Tricks

A tourist out with her friends from Kentucky, was pickpocketed on Canal Street as she watched a game of three-card monte. The thief, who stole $500 in cash from the 46-year-old woman, was caught red-handed but averted arrest. Before he ran off, the pocket picker shouted, “Go ahead and call the law!” He has yet to be caught.

Stolen Bike

On the evening of March 19, a 21-year-old Queens man parked his red Honda motorcycle on the corner of North End Avenue and Murray Street. When he returned to the corner, his bike, which was unlocked and uncovered, was no where to be seen. Police searched the area for the missing bike, estimated to be worth $10,000, but to no avail.

Soft Money

illustration by evan soares

Feb. 22, a man was arrested for credit card fraud in a drug store on Wall Street. The man tried to buy $1,040 worth of American Express gift cards and, perhaps in an effort to properly launder the money, a $7 bottle of fabric softener.

But this decades-old story may be about to change, as the city is likely to install protected bicycle lanes on Amsterdam and Columbus avenues. Unlike the painted lanes drawn on asphalt throughout the city, protected lanes are strictly for bicyclists. The city does not have a definite design for the Upper West Side lanes, but a buffer of some sort—such as a concrete divider or a row of parked cars—would be included to block traffic from driving or double parking where bicyclists ride. The dedicated bike path would also remove one lane of motor vehicle traffic from both avenues. But instead of complaints of congestion, the lane is lauded for slowing down traffic, much to the delight of pedestrians.

Community Board 7 hopes to work with the city this winter to map out protected bike lanes for the neighborhood. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

The design is modeled after a pilot program in Chelsea, where bicyclists ride safely to the left of parked cars on Eighth and Ninth avenues, and it was originally inspired by the streets of European cities like Copenhagen, Denmark, considered one of the best cities for bicycling in the world.

With the Chelsea lanes up and running for two years now, advocates hope that expanding to the Upper West Side will be a major improvement in the city’s bicycling infrastructure. But the Chelsea lanes weren’t always so warmly embraced, and how protected lanes are created and installed will likely determine how successful they are with the West Side community.

Bicycle infrastructure has been an integral part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s environmental and transportation agendas. In Bloomberg’s 2007 manifesto for the future of New York City, PlaNYC 2030, he proposed an additional 1,380 miles of bike lanes, for a total of 1,800 miles.

In the two-year progress report since PlaNYC 2030 was released, the city has installed 141 miles of new lanes, and the Department of Transportation estimates that the number of bicyclists in the city has grown 26 percent since last year.

Though the new lanes have certainly encouraged this growth, many cyclists complain that painted lanes are more like obstacle courses than bike routes. Bicyclists are constantly swerving into traffic to avoid swinging car doors, motorists driving in the lane or double parked cars.

One solution has been protected bike lanes, which were first piloted on Ninth Avenue in Chelsea in 2007. Now widely considered a success by bicycling advocates and pedestrians alike, the lanes were initially fairly controversial, especially among area businesses. The Department of Transportation installed one bike lane on Ninth Avenue between West 14th and 23rd streets seemingly overnight. Some business owners and community members felt blindsided. Parking was the main complaint.

“We were a little annoyed at the process,” said Christine Berthet, chair of Community Board 4’s transportation committee. “We didn’t have the time really to sort out the small things that need to be adjusted when you put in a bike lane.”

Changes to delivery zones and parking spots were made after the lane was installed. A deli’s business took a hit when the bike lane prevented his taxi driver customers from parking and getting a quick bite to eat. Board 4 had to find an alternate location for the taxicabs to make a pit stop.

However, the second and third set of protected bike lanes, on Eighth and Ninth avenues between West 23rd and 31st streets, were installed after hearing from business owners. This made for a smooth installation with minimal problems.

“It’s very important to go to those stores and understand their pick-up and delivery needs so they have the sense that their need is taken into consideration and they don’t feel that they’re being run over,” Berthet said.

The change has been paying dividends, according to Transportation Alternatives, one of the most well-known transit advocacy groups in the city. The group said that not only has cycling increased because of the safe lanes, but a study found that Chelsea saw an 80 percent reduction in sidewalk cycling. With traffic moving at a slower speed in only four lanes, pedestrian injuries from motorists and bicyclists declined by more than a third, according to the report.

Now Transportation Alternatives is shifting its focus to the Upper West Side, where the group is joining with the Department of Transportation and Community Board 7 to push for these lanes on Amsterdam and Columbus avenues.

The Upper West Side only has one painted bike lane—on Central Park West—that runs the length of the neighborhood, in addition to five bike lanes painted on area side streets.

A protected lane “sort of corrals [bicyclists], if you will, and it gives sidewalk walkers more safety and space,” said Lisa Sladkus, an organizer for Upper West Side Street Renaissance, a pedestrian and bicyclist advocacy group.

On the Upper West Side in 2005, there were 346 pedestrian and bicycle accidents, with five fatalities, which is the most recent information culled by Transportation Alternatives from city data.

Board 7, which has traditionally been friendly to pedestrian concerns, passed a resolution last month, 28 to 7, to collaborate with the Department of Transportation on the protected bike lanes.

“There has been such a call for them,” said Helen Rosenthal, former chair of Board 7. “We’re very enthusiastically participating.”

So is the area’s business community, which is becoming an integral part of bringing new lanes to the neighborhood. Rather than fight business interests, groups such as Upper West Side Streets Renaissance are courting business owners to support bike lanes and make the city plan around parking and delivery concerns. The group collected signatures from 108 businesses along Amsterdam and Columbus avenues, thanking Board 7 for passing the resolution and supporting the city’s bike lanes efforts.

“One of the rhetorical questions was, will businesses hate it,” said Peter Goldwasser, general counsel to Transportation Alternatives. “It’s clearly not the case.”

Eric Graff, a manager at Planet Kids, at 191 Amsterdam Ave. and West 69th Street, was more concerned with treacherous biking conditions along the avenue rather than with delivery problems for his business.

“There’s still going to be a spot by the curb,” said Graff, who signed the petition.

David Endo, a bicyclist and owner of Vitamin Peddler, at 364 Amsterdam Ave. and West 78th Street, also dismissed possible disruptions in his deliveries from a full lane being dedicated to bicycles.

“Potentially it could be [a problem],” Endo said. “But UPS, Fed Ex—they’ll just double park [on the other side of the lane] as usual.”

A concrete proposal from the Department of Transportation is still a long time off, and developing a timeline for this project is difficult, even with the city’s experience in Chelsea. But Board 7 wants to have its own design team working in tandem with the Department of Transportation throughout the winter. By spring, they are hoping to have a hard proposal for the community to review. Both biking advocates and the city are putting a premium on neighborhood input for clear signage to prevent pedestrians from walking into these lanes and for maintaining delivery space.

Keeping businesses abreast of new bike lanes would help stakeholders avoid some of the headaches Chelsea experienced with its protected lanes, said State Sen. Tom Duane, who represents both neighborhoods. He suggested getting ample community consultation.

“My experience,” he said, “is that including all of the stakeholders in the discussion before bike lanes are actually put in place makes a very big difference in acceptance of and, frankly, the use of bike lanes.”

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Beyond Bike Lanes

As the site of the city’s first protected bike lanes, Chelsea gets to boast of being at the forefront of a new age of urban bicycling. But advocates hope the Upper West Side can become the first neighborhood to take part in a bike share program.

Modeled after similar programs in Washington, D.C. and Barcelona, Spain, residents could rent a bicycle at a designated station, then ride to their destination, leaving the bike for another cyclist.

This program would likely be popular among commuters, those who use bikes for small errands and tourists.

In a spring 2009 report on implementing a citywide program, the city suggested an initial plan to put 10,500 bicycles in a high-density area, funded through membership fees.

Council Member Gale Brewer, in a letter to Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, wrote that the Upper West Side would generate enough user data to plan for a citywide bike-sharing program. If the bike-share catches on for the Upper West Side, the city would be encouraged to expand the program, Brewer argued.

“The Upper West Side has a growing biking community that would embrace a bike share system,” Brewer wrote. “I foresee such a pilot program forming the basis of a permanent bike-sharing infrastructure.”